James lashes out at Mukul

Staff ReporterSHILLONG, Oct 03: Meghalaya’s Home Minister James Sangma has said that more maturity is expected from the leader of the opposition and former Chief Minister, Dr Mukul Sangma when it comes to making statements.The Home Minister was reacting to the statement made by Dr. Sangma wherein he had dubbed Chief Minister Conrad Sangma as a mere nomine of the BJP.Acknowledging that in a democracy everyone has the right to express their opinion, James however said, “Before he (Dr Mukul) says anything he should measure his words, base everything on facts especially for the position he is in as the leader of the opposition and things don’t work on the basis of mere rhetoric”.

“I think it is very irresponsible on his part to make such statement I would have expected more maturity on his part,” James said here on Wednesday.It may be noted here that while accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the regional parties in Meghalaya to keep the Congress out of power in the state, Dr. Sangma had said that the incumbent Chief Minister and national president of the National People’s Party (NPP), Conrad Sangma is a ‘nominee’ of the BJP.Dr. Sangma had also predicted that the alliance between the NPP and the regional parties will be a short lived one.Stating that the regional parties are enjoying a ‘honeymoon period’ with the NPP, Dr. Sangma said that this will all soon end.He also accused the BJP of creating a negative perception over the leader of the All India Congress Party (AICC), Rahul Gandhi while adding that it is the job of the BJP to do so.“Their job is to create a negative perception. They created that even in Meghalaya by making various allegations against me,” Dr Sangma had said.Asked about the idea of having a common MDA candidate for the Tura and Shillong Lok Sabha seats, James said that they are yet to decide on this as the agenda has not yet come up in any of the meetings of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA). He also said that this will be a collective decision.It may be mentioned that the idea to field a common candidate for the Lok Sabha seats was pitched by MDA coalition partner, the United Democratic Party (UDP) which has been constantly maintaining that this will help the coalition perform better and secure a win.